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Alpine residents fill commission subcommittees
By Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE — “Promises made, promises
kept.” This was Mark Price’s theme for the Bond Advisory
Commission Sign-up Meeting, held Tuesday night, Feb. 20, at
Alpine Elementary School.
More than 50 Alpine residents showed up at this
meeting. Alpine Union School District board members, Price, Eric
Wray and Gina Henke were in attendance along with several
Grossmont Union School District administration and board members
including: Superintendent Terry Ryan, Deputy Superintendent
Scott Patterson, Executive Director in Facilities Management,
Bob Kiesling and Catherine Martin, along with board members,
Larry Urdahl and Priscilla Schreiber.
Price, as chairman of this commission, hosted this
informative meeting, with a fair approach to looking at what has
been done with the Proposition H funds, what is possible to do
with these funds, and how can we, as a whole community,
accomplish what’s best for everyone concerned.
“This commission and its subcommittees should be a
positive force,” he said.
There are several appointees to the commission,
including: Mark Price as chairman, Danny Tucker as vice chair,
Julie Wiley, Jim Peabody, James Perkins, Ariel Kagen, Patrick
Waters, Deborah O’Coyne, Tony Camara, Mendy Brent, Bill Garrett
and Pat Price.
Each of the people that are serving on this commission
has a concerned interest in GUHSD, and how it allocates the bond
monies. Most also have an interest in Alpine, as several of them
live in town.
James Perkins, who is heading up the Finance
Subcommittee is the Chief Operations Officer in a San Diego
legal firm, and has been a resident in Alpine for the last 12
years. Julie Wiley, who is working on the Facilities and
Curriculum Subcommittee, is also an Alpine resident, as well as
a legal representative for SANDAG. The credentials of each of
these members are impressive and will lend well to Alpine’s
movement for an Alpine high school.
If nothing else, this commission will get to the truth
about what is possible to do with the money that is available.
As the members of the BAC introduced themselves, one
common thread ran through each of their introductory statements:
“Let’s work together to get this done.” Every one of these
people seemed to understand that Alpine wants a high school, but
also they know that there is a much bigger picture to look at.
The existing GUHSD schools need a lot of attention as well, and
the proposition H bond monies need to try and cover both issues.
The BAC has until May to make its recommendations to
the GUHSD board. Price said that the subcommittees will meet
twice a month, to discuss findings and to deliberate
recommendations that will be brought to the commission at the
end of each month. Price indicated that the GUHSD board would
like recommendations sooner, rather than later, but as many of
the appointees on the commission said, “one hundred days is not
much time to get done what needs to be done.”
The Facilities and Curriculum Subcommittee will be in
charge of finding out what a comprehensive high school means for
Alpine. Price said, that without knowing what is to be built, we
can’t know how much we need to spend.
The Site Subcommittee will be looking at the four sites
that have already been identified for an Alpine high school,
along with any other sites that would be appropriate, and could
accommodate a high school. This subcommittee is important,
because it must take into consideration the location that would
best serve Alpine and its surrounding residents, who would have
students attending this high school.
The Repair and Renovation Subcommittee must look at all
the necessary repairs that have to take place in the existing
district high schools. This is also an important task, as this
bond money, in its very language, was to cover the deferred
maintenance of the existing schools.
“All of the ‘want to dos’ in regards to renovations of
the existing sites have been removed. We are only considering
the ‘must dos’ and the ‘should dos,’” said Superintendent Ryan.
“The first priority is safety for the students and the
teachers.”
The Finance subcommittee is in charge of accounting for
the money spent, and recommending a budget of how the money
should be spent. This means that they must look at what the
Facilities and Curriculum Subcommittee finds, as well as what
the Repair and Renovations subcommittee finds, along with the
Site Subcommittee’s recommendations. Also included in the
Finance Subcommittee’s task is to look at alternative financial
sources to cover the work that is needed to be done, as well as
constructing an Alpine high school.
Stephanie Wells asked the commission if there was any
hierarchy in place for this commission. As she understood from
her attendance at this meeting, money was the final factor in
whether an Alpine high school was going to be built. She
questioned whether looking at possible sites, or what the
facilities were going to look like was necessary because if the
money was already spent on renovations to the existing schools,
the funding for the high school was a moot point.
Price clarified that each subcommittee is an important
factor in bringing Alpine’s recommendations to the board. He
reiterated that without knowing what we want in the facilities
and curriculum of a high school, we don’t know what we are
building and how much it will cost. If we don’t know where the
site is going to be, we don’t know how much we are going to
spend on the land. If we don’t know what repairs and renovations
are necessary and imperative, we don’t know how much is left in
the bond monies to spend on construction.
Price said that many of the Alpine citizens were
disappointed after the Feb. 3 workshop, feeling that the
district was declining to build an Alpine high school.
“I’m not ready as a citizen to give up... To not do
every single thing possible to get it done is not in the best
interest of the kids,” Price said.
Local businessman Paul Gonya stood up, as a speaker to
the commission, and declared that the local private sector has
the funding capabilities to make a high school possible in
Alpine. He asked them not to overlook the private sector’s
financial abilities. He also volunteered to serve on the site
subcommittee.
The question of how much of the bond monies have been
spent by GUHSD was then brought up. Many Alpine citizens wanted
a firm number.
Scott Patterson answered by saying that $99 million has
been spent already on repairs and renovations thus far, and
another $85 to $100 million has been budgeted to address repairs
in the phase 2b of the GUHSD deferred maintenance projects.
Terry Ryan added that each of the projects that have
been put into progress are on the “must do” list. They include
electrical up-grades, gas line upgrades, and plumbing upgrades.
Al Haven asked then that GUHSD make available to these
subcommittees all prior studies and basic information that has
been collected so far. He said that if the subcommittees are
forced to take too much time recollecting data that has already
been collected, the subcommittees will not be able to complete
the tasks that have been put before them.
Price wrapped up this meeting by directing everyone’s
attention to the sign-up sheets for each subcommittee.
“The world is run by those who show up,” Price said.
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Christy Scott
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